Big-name restaurants and food companies have been rushing to hike prices, citing rising raw material costs and higher wages, according to industry analysts Thursday.Smaller players will likely follow suit in the coming weeks, putting a heavier financial burden on households, which have been grappling with rising debt and sluggish income growth amid the deteriorating job market, they said.Among others, McDonald's Korea plans to raise the prices of 23 items by 2.41 percent Feb. 12. That will mean an increase in the prices of six hamburgers, five breakfast items, five desserts, two drinks and five Happy Meal items by 100 won to 200 won."It was an inevitable decision in order to provide the best quality and service to customers amid rising costs," a McDonald's Korea official said. The move came after other fast-food restaurants announced price hikes. Subway raised the price of 18 sandwiches here by 200 won to 300 won earlier this month, citing rising ingredient costs and labor expenses. Hamburger chains Lotteria and Burger King hiked their burger prices at the end of last year, also citing rising costs. Lotteria increased the price of 11 burgers by 200 won to 300 won, and Burger King, 200 won on items for delivery.Not only fast food restaurants but also the manufacturers of processed foods are jacking up their prices.CJ CheilJedang said it will increase the prices of seven food items Feb. 21. That will push up the price of Hetbahn Cooked Rice by 8.1 percent, fishcakes by 7.2 percent and fermented anchovy sauce by 10.4 percent. The prices of other fermented sauces and Dasida soup stock were also raised 10 percent. The company had previously raised the price of Hetbahn by 7.1 percent in March last year.The food giant attributed the rising wholesale rice prices for its decision. Due to declining rice output, the average rice price from October to January rose to 2,461 won per kilogram, up 27.7 percent from 1,927 won in the same period a year earlier, it said. "We have been absorbing the impact of rising raw material costs, but the continued uptrend in ingredient and processing costs left us no choice but to hike prices on our products," a CJ CheilJedang official said. Analysts said other food firms in the same markets will follow due to CJ CheilJedang products' market status and the challenging market environment affecting the entire food industry."The fresh price hike is affecting CJ CheilJedang's most popular brands of Hetbahn and Dasida, but there are many other factors that can increase production costs for food firms," KB Securities analyst Park Ae-ran said. "Due to that, rival firms may join the price hike bandwagon." As of August, Hetbahn accounted for 73.6 percent of the cooked rice market in Korea. Dasida also enjoys a dominant status, with an 83 percent market share in 2017. "Price hikes by market leaders such as CJ CheilJedang or McDonald's come as a trigger for other firms in the same market to raise their prices," a food firm official said. "Also, the country's food industry is facing challenges in labor costs stemming from the minimum wage hike, meaning there is plenty of ground for them to raise prices."